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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

It's all cool. Everyone looks cool - except Donghyun, who is hot- the song is cool, the set design and graphics are cool and it's Alice in Wonderland, which is always cool. I may reread the book just to be extra nerdy about it all. The nice touch in this is that the Alice here knowingly walked into Wonderland to play with Boyfriend like they're her test rabbits.

The whole video is a fantastic take on the whole story including an Alice who is clearly holding all cards and ready to take Boyfriend out of their tea party to another world. Here's how it starts.

You're not in Oxford anymore, Alice, which, to be clear, is where Lewis Carroll lived.

Then he makes sure you know he's jjang. Look at that glower. His tastes may be a bit unusual, and that's quite all right.

Next, we have MinWoo, the Mad Hatter.

So Gerard Depardieu, except handsome.

Absolutely, nothing, Maknae MinWoo, except maybe that someone slipped a hallucinogenic in my tea. But this dream is gorgeous, and I'm not complaining.

Here we have the Twins, playing TweedleDee and TweedleDum. I don't know their names. They're handsome and interchangeable because they're only 19, so let's leave it at that and hope they grow up quickly.

Clearly, these two don't care. They're painting a flower, as in actually painting it. If that isn't badass and Twins-Don't-Care what is? They can see in your soul with those bizarrely natural bug eyes, so don't bother pretending you don't think they're the most confusingly cute kids this side of Jaehyo in Nanlina (Jaehyo is always relevant).

Then there's the Other Two playing some Cards or Dormice or something. I think one of them flashed abs, but they weren't worth sculpted enough to screenshot. Apologies to fans of the Other Two.

Here are their solo shots:

In any case, we have these Manly Maknae Minwoo and Dastardly Delightful Donghyun:

And the Twins:

Naturally Donghyun gets the girl because he's the actual adult male in all of this, and it shows.

Even falling into a vortex of unreality, he's totally jjang, the guy you want falling into extra-deep rabbit hole with you because he's so in the moment and cat-don't-care.

I'm on another continent, Donghyun-ssi, but I appreciate you asking.

In the end (or is it just the beginning?) they end up where Alice's story originally begins, in a tiny room, looking through a tiny keyhole.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

I had mixed feelings writing about yet another maîtresse-en-titre at the French court, especially since the role is a bit icky, and because Mme du Barry died fairly young at age 50, making her not entirely the best anti-aging candidate, even if it was the 18th century. Then, I read some more about Mme du Barry in Joan Haslip's biography, and realized a few things. First, her sordid career choice, if you can call it that, wasn't exactly her choice. Her family forced her into it. Second, she didn't really have too many options at that time since careers for women pretty much didn't exist, and if your own family wasn't helping you get married, you weren't going to be a respectable missus.

[Mme de Maintenon was a prime example of a respectable missus.]

Even becoming a nun required a dowry. Third, getting the maîtresse-en-titre position got du Barry out of the whole courtesan circle, phew. So, I feel it's best to just accept she was pushed down a certain sad road, but that she did get some relief from it for a while in a sort of common-law marriage.

Plus, du Barry was a kind person who:

- pleaded with the King for the lives of the condemned and elderly Comte and Comtesse de Lousene;*

- intervened for a woman accused of infanticide when she'd borne a stillborn child;**

- forgave and assisted the same aristocracy who had snubbed her as lowborn when they became refugees during the French Revolution.***

Donc, on to du Barry's beauty regime! Considering her rather sordid lifestyle, quite miraculously, she stayed pretty and fresh and with her own hair colour right up to her gruesome guillotine death at age 50. Living as she did in the 18th century, a time known for terrible hygiene and horrible skin diseases,

what were this fabulous beauty's anti-aging secrets? They were, as follows:

Usual disclaimer: as always, if you want to try any of these anti-aging treatments, check with your doctor and test for allergies. And if you're a sensitive soul prone to nightmares or insomnia, don't read about guillotines.

Special thanks to Lauren of http://marie-antoinettequeenoffrance.blogspot.com/ for help with some of the research.

Wilson, Bee. The hive: the story of the honeybee and us. New York : Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Griffin (2007): 205.

***** “Madame Du Barry wanted to accentuate the natural color of her blond hair, and Fargeon promised to bring her a blend of saffron, turmeric, polypodium fern roots, St John's wort, gentian, citrin-colorued sandalwood and rhubarb. If she used the lotion regularly to wash her hair, it would be even blonder.”